Having already made a lot of progress since Xavi Hernandez took over last season, the world-class talent Barcelona recruited this summer only fueled the expectations at Camp Nou.
Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha, Franck Kessie, Andreas Christensen, and Jules Koundehave all joined the Catalan side in this transfer window as the club aims to get back to the top. However, Barca couldn’t start the 2022-23 campaign on the right foot.
On Saturday, Rayo Vallecano held them to a goalless draw in the first round of the new La Liga season. Though the game showed Barca still have work to do, for Xavi it proved it’s time for a rule change in soccer.
Xavi wants soccer to have stop clock to avoid time wasting
While Barca were looking forall three points on Saturday, Rayo were understandably interested in snatching a point. Therefore, they did whatever it took to get the draw, including wasting as much time as possible.
Of course, that’s a tactic that may work for teams that want to run the clock but one that certainly irritates the opponents. The wasted time on the Rayo tie clearly frustrated Xavi, who insisted postgame that the clock should be stopped when the ball is not in play, something that already happens in other sports.
“To meit’s ridiculous. What are we waiting for to have effective time? That way we wouldn’t need to be looking at whether they add eight or 22 minutes. It’s ridiculous because cheating is installed. Another day will be us, eh? I’m not saying it for Rayo. But I think we are the only sport where we never play the regular time. Don’t we want fairplay? Well, this would put an end to cheating,” Xavi said, via As.
Added time never completely makes up for the time lost during the game. Lots of minutes are wasted between VAR reviews, substitutions, fouls, and every time every time the ball goes off the pitch. However, it’s hard to imagine achange like the one Xavi is proposing.
